Jesus said: "But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then." (Matthew 19:28).

The spiritual and the material are polar opposites. What is great in the world is abominable to God. And often what is despised by worldly people is adored by God. Thus the world adores fame, pride, arrogance and power, whilst the spiritual rejoices in humility, meekness and service to others.

This brings me to women. It seems that many women feel that it is unfair that they have or had little power. Modern women seem to be more and more shunning traditional values of womenhood: of meekness, of humility, of being the least (in a worldly sense). Oh, but cannot they see what they are turning away from? These attributes, which they see as weakness and increasingly despise, are the highest spiritual gems one can hope to attain. Instead, women are seeking to emulate the lowest (in a spiritual sense) attributes of men: haughtness, pride, arrogance (thinking they know what is best, when only God knows this). They seek power, as if any human can have power over their lives and circumstances - all true power is, and remains with, God. What He wants to give you, you will get, what He wants to take away you will lose - you have no direct power over this.

I say direct power, because what God wants us to have most of all are His high spiritual qualities, in the greatest degree - He wants us to be as He is (remember: "be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect" be a "child of God" - where a child has the inherited attributes of the parent). He wants us to be able to bear the suffering and ignomious and selfish treatment of others without losing any trace of love in our hearts. He wants us to be capable of following His example on the cross, whereby He stated: "forgive them Father, for they know not what they do".

Thus the best way to ensure a lack of material want is to attain the spiritual gems as soon as possible, to perfect oneself, then - as a master or mistress of your passions and desires - there will be no further need for suffering. Not only that, but in pursuing the spiritual not only will you free yourself from feelings of insecurity, but also all fear and anxiety - as you come to accept and know, deep in yourself, that God is in control and that you can trust Him to look after you if you place your faith and trust in His hands! Of course, if you arrogantly feel that you can somehow control your circumstances on your own, by gaining more power, more wealth, more learning, more beauty (or whatever). If you wish to follow this worldly - and foolish path - then what choice does God have but to allow you to smash your own ship against the rocks in the storms of life? How could He allow you to persist in the deception that a mere, deluded, human has control over anything at all apart from their own free-will?

Thus what should women do? Well I believe that men and women are called to do exactly the same things. To be as humble as possible, to be as meek as possible, and above all to be as loving and selfless as possible - then everything else you need will be added (Matthew 6:33). Also (I believe) men and women should not see themselves as having to be the be-all and end-all in their individual selves. Men and women are supposed to join together to form a complete person in marriage ("they are no longer two but one" Matthew 19:4). Thus each has a role to play, and the woman should not feel her self lesser, because her part does not include some of this role.

Now some women may feel that the bible demeans and degrades women. Perhaps they call to mind notions such as the wife having to honour and obey the husband.? But I suspect that worldly standards and thinking are at play here. Let us look more closely at what the bible says:

"Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives" (Peter 3:1).

The wife is asked to teach and remind the husband of the spiritual - not so much by her words as by her example! Traditionally it has been men that have had to deal with most worldly situations - situations such of having earn the income, deal with worldly affairs (finding housing, property issues etc), and thus risk all the worldly temptations and the effects of these such as greed, power hunger and all the other worldly cares that distract from God. Given this situation of men, from Peter (3:1) above, it appears that women's role was to be their guiding light, their "angels" on earth! The women's role is in fact the most important! Reminding men of the heavenly qualities of God, and the beauty of meekness, humility and a lack of hunger for power over others. To think this is demeaning is a grave error because, as already mentioned, what the world sees as the least, is in fact - in this case - representing the highest!

So what a terrible situation we are in today, when everyone - both women and men - have joined into the worldly fray. Seeking power, status, control (or rather the illusion of such), where selfishness abounds and love for others, and love for the glorious attributes of God, has faded, and in fact, are despised and scorned by the majority.

And we see that men's (and women's) illusions of power and control are resulting in exactly the opposite - chaos - terrorism, excesses of greed, destruction of the natural world, low self-esteem and self-harm and, in general, utter misery for everyone. For when the whole of humanity feels it has the wisdom of God; feels that it knows what is right and true; feels that it can control its own destiny and circumstances - what choice does God have but to allow our collective ship of deception to get shipwrecked in the worldly storms that stem from our own arrogance, pride and selfishness? It seems that all God can do is what women were once called to do: to stand by and obey (allow) the unruly will and behaviour of the man (all of us) and hope that by holding up the candle of meekness, humility and love, one day humanity will eventually - according to the words of Peter: be won over without words by the behavior of their wives - in this case by God himself, in place of the now lost and deluded wives who were supposed to reflect His glorious image into the worldly lives of mankind.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

PS: Meekness is not the same as weakness and to be meek does not mean timid. God is meek to the highest degree, but He is by no means weak or timid. Consider also, what is the alternative to meekness? To fume and rage? One final word, you cannot judge some one else's heart - only God can do that. Thus someone who seems meek outwardly might in fact be fuming mad inwardly, similarly someone who seems to be outspoken may in fact be meek in their heart.